Weekends in July

I've been busy-busy relaxing and having fun over my two weeks off - my favorite kind of busy! I spent a large amount of time hanging with Brett, family (both his and mine), watching Netflix (yesssss), and enjoying the summer sunshine. (I even got a nice little burn on my back to prove it!) Here's a little round up of everything I got up  to during my vacation!

This year's fourth of July weekend was extremely low-key. I didn't travel further than 30 minutes in any direction, and I was just fine with that. I still managed to have a fun time with both my family & Brett's family the whole long weekend!

Because Independence Day was on a Friday this year, festivities really got started on Thursday the 3rd! I met my parents in the morning and we headed over to Patriot Place in Foxboro to run the Finish at the 50 5K! This was our second year participating in this event, but last year I ran the 10K. Remembering how hot and difficult the race was in 2013, I opted to cut my running obligations in half. No need to pass out on a holiday weekend!

We arrived to Patriots Place early to register, do a little shopping, eat some lunch, and just enjoy each other's company. My mom and I obviously went into Charming Charlie's to drool over accessories. We've visited this shop a few times before and we finally broke down and bought a few things! I picked out a fun new bag, wallet, and scarf! We also grabbed some lunch on the roof deck of Bar Louie - so yummy - and dessert at Cupcake Charlie - sooooo yummy!

After a stroll through the nice, air conditioned Patriots Pro Shop, we went back to the truck to hydrate and gear up for the race. Since it was the day before Independence Day, we were fully decked out in our stars & stripes, right down to the sunglasses.

Mom & I rocked the same patriotic tank!

When it was finally race time, we headed over to the starting line. This race has gotten bigger and bigger every year, and this year was no different. We ended up waiting about 5-7 minutes after the gun went off before we even crossed the starting line! Once we started running it was super crowded and it took me a while (probably a little over a mile!) to sift through all of the walkers before I could actually find some running space. Can't imagine what next year is going to be like!

Waiting at the starting line! (Green mouth courtesy of Gatorade... >_>)

The race itself was so hot and I'm so happy I chose the 5K over the 10K. It was very hard to breathe which made it difficult and painful to move my body due to the lack of oxygen, but I finally made it across the finish line with sweat stinging my eyes and wanting nothing more than to jump into some sort of body of water. But we all finished (and found each other after a little searching) and got to hang out on the field of Gillette Stadium for a bit, which is always cool!

The 4th itself was rainy and miserable which stinks because it's my favorite summer holiday, but it actually turned out to be a much needed lazy day so I didn't end up being too heartbroken over it. Brett and I stayed in, watched a bunch of documentaries on Netflix, and only left the house to get subs and fries for lunch... SCORE.

We did make up for the holiday on the 5th, though, and ventured over to Lake Cochituate for the afternoon with Brett's sister Danielle. Even though it was windy due to the storm that hit on the 4th, it was nice and sunny and we were able to swim for the first time all summer! I also got some good beach reading in while Brett and Danielle played basketball. :)

After we got back from the beach Brett and I searched around for some fireworks to go see. Since there was a lot of cancellations on the 4th due to weather, lots of towns rescheduled their Independence Day fireworks for the 5th. We found some the next town over for us and ventured there just in time for them to start! We were super up close and personal to the fireworks - some of them looked so close that they would fall right on top of us! - but it was a fantastic show and an amazing way to make up for a lazy, uneventful 4th!

The 6th was spent with a long morning run (9 miles... finally getting back up to where I was last summer!) and a shopping trip to the outlets with Brett. We sifted through the crowds to buy new sneakers for him and new sandals for me. (I wound up finding two pairs for $15 - score!) In the evening I was hankering for some ice cream stand ice cream, so we headed over to Black Cow and got some! They had my favorite flavor ever, Bubble Gum, and it's the first stand I've hit so far this summer that has had it so I definitely had to grab a dish of it!

This past weekend was spent in my home state of New Hampshire with Brett, Danny, and my parents! We ventured up Friday afternoon which just so happened to be July 11th, aka 7/11, aka FREE SLURPEE DAY. We definitely took advantage of that as soon as we pulled off the highway!

"It tastes like Coca-Cola... and victory." -Danny

We headed down to the beach when we got to my family's house and I showed Brett and Danny some of the games I played on the lake as a kid. They played their typical battling games on the dock while I relaxed a bit on the beach. After we were done swimming, Danny and Brett got some Uncle/Nephew bonding time on my dad's ATV! (I think Brett found his new favorite hobby!)

The dogs were patiently waiting their return!

We ate some Chinese food for dinner (and by some I mean about 8 pounds each... >_>) and then immediately went out on the boat with my parents for some tubing! I wasn't quite in the mood to tube (a belly full of Chinese food can do that to ya) but Danny and Brett were tearing it up! I took a ton of footage of the boys on the water and compiled it to the video below - check it out (there are some pretty epic moves AND wipe outs!) 

We were lucky enough to come up on the weekend when the town fair was going on. We took Danny over to the center of town to check out everything that happening. I rode on the Scrambler with him ("No fun allowed!"), he bounced on a bungee trampoline contraption & rode down the giant slide, Brett attempted to dunk someone in the dunk tank, and Danny even chopped through a wooden block at the tent a local karate center was running! The local fair isn't anything huge to write home about, but we had fun nonetheless!

Saturday was more swimming, boating, and tubing. We brought Danny over to La Festa for the world's best pizza & knots for lunch (Danny lost his mind over the garlic & cinnamon knots!), and got to enjoy a beautiful sunset from the boat. My dad built us all a fire afterward and we taught Danny how to retire a flag (we had an old flag in our boat that was pretty haggard) while my mom read off fun facts about the original colonies. We ended the day with some s'mores (duh) and beers (the 21+ crowd, of course) and after a long, eventful couple days we hit the pillow HARD.

We woke up early Sunday morning to head up to Brett's nook of NH, Ossipee Lake. We met up with Brett's parents at their campsite and headed over to Long Sands to float around for a bit. We got to eat lunch on the water, hang out with his cousins, aunt, and uncle, and play some Polish Horseshoes (I'm still awful at it). It started to rain halfway through the afternoon so we had to head back in, but it was for the best because unfortunately Brett wasn't feeling too well.

We made our journey back to Massachusetts after we docked. Danny's parents were missing him like crazy so we needed to get him home, and we needed to get Brett in his own bed so he could feel all better!

We have a few more fun things planned this summer that I'm definitely looking forward to, including a trip down the Cape next week! Of course, I will be taking photos and sharing stories of that adventure with you all when we return. I hope you all have been having a wonderfully fun and action-packed summer as well! :)